Visual Eyes

by Mike Woeller

Photo Philosophy

With the dawning of the new millennium here, I would like to take this month to stop and ponder what it is that makes us take pictures. Pictures of kites, pictures of people, pictures of kite people, family, friends, and friends of the family; all these are ripe fodder for our photographic lens. It is rare, though, that anyone stops and wonders why we take these pictures. There is a myriad of reasons. Most of these reasons boil down to the simple fact that we are human, and as such, we relish our memories.

The Memory Game

So what is it about us being human that makes us want to take pictures? Photographs are moments in time captured through a mystical process and frozen onto a medium that is semi permanent (or very permanent, depending on the medium). Whereas our human minds are subject to memory loss and corruption, photos serve as a better record of our memories than our own human minds. Many times, the mind fails to remember the actual picture, but yet, it records the emotions connected to that picture. Pictures help us relive exciting, joyous, painful, or sad. As humans, we cherish these memories because our lives are a collection of events that trigger emotions. Emotions are what make us human, what separate us from the other animals on this planet. The complex synergy of memories, events, pictures, emotions, and people is what make up our lives and make them worth everything given to us.

This Is A Recording

Of course, not all photos are meant to be emotion grabbers. Some photos are meant as what those in the photography world call a “record shot.” Record shots are simply what the name implies; they record the way something was at a particular moment in time. These photos are mostly used as an archiving tool. Still, the basic reason we like to have these photos is that we enjoy remembering things. For many people, being able to record an event on film or video gives them a feeling of mastery over time, over the march of our lives towards the future. If we can grab hold of a moment, capture it onto a paper and hold it there forever, not only do we have a record of what is happening in our hectic lives, but we have mastery over it. We can control the way we see it and the way others see it by the way we take our pictures and how we choose our subjects.

Let Me Tell You A Story…

One last reason some of us don cameras instead of lines and a kite at an event is the ability of a series of photos to tell a story. This reason is not solely limited to the kiting world, but it really works well at an event. A series of photos that are inter-related can tell a story a unique way. A kiting event provides a unique opportunity for photographers and flyers to work together to provide an emotionally charged storytelling adventure. A great example of this was the presentation the Kitelife.com crew provided to the attendees of the Wildwood International Kite Expo in Wildwood New Jersey this past Memorial Weekend. It was 20 minutes of some of the most fabulous kiting photo essay ever assembled, complete with appropriate music. The response was fabulous, to say the least, and as one of the photographers, it was an amazing feeling to see that reaction. So why did all the photographers for that year and the many years, 14 in all, contribute to that presentation? Well, many wanted to share the feelings they had from the event; some were chronicling for themselves and donated the photos to share that feeling also. People are social animals. Most of us love sharing our adventures and stories, and many of us enjoy hearing those same stories from others. It’s a circular process. One person will present a photo essay or story to a friend, and then that friend will start recounting something from his/her experiences, sometimes pulling out photos. Pretty soon, four hours or so have passed and these friends will have reminisced and bonded and grown in their emotions and hopefully in themselves and their photography.

The Long And Short Of It